Space Mountain Question

CaptainJackNO

CaptainJackNO

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I was watching Martin's video tribute to space and saw something that intrigued me. The original rockets appeared to allow couples to sit in the same seat and lap bar. Is that accurate? I know now you have your own seat and the closest the person ahead of you gets is the seat ahead which is barely out of arms reach.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
A bit biased, but its accurate.

The first cars had four guests in two seats with seat belts, like the Matterhorn was until recently..

Next were 3 guests in 3 seats but with lap bars.

Now we have 3 guests in 3 seats with T bars.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Best shown in the original exterior mockup:

image.jpg
 
Brickcity Pauly

Brickcity Pauly

Well-Known Member
Corey P said:
Long ago people were responsible for their own dumb a**ness. Now it's basically a lottery system for the dumb, I fell and you now owe me 5 million because you didn't prevent me from being dumb.
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Yes. I try to explain to my daughter how ridiculous the world as she knows it, is.
 
rsoxguy

rsoxguy

Well-Known Member
I remember these clearly, and I remember the uncomfortable feeling of riding with an individual with which I was not romantically bound. I am thankful for progress.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Corey P said:
I think it's straight up a matter of people being to fat now.......you just couldn't cram two people into one of those seats.

It is a safety concern since I guarantee the original designers weren't figuring on people who weigh 250-300 lbs a piece. Just the body shape is so different.
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Um...Matterhorn had those seat designs up until a few years ago. When I was 14 my mom and I got on it. Neither of us is fat. She got injured on it because on one of the bumps, I flew back and the buckle went in her. It's a safety issue for anyone. The current design is safer and holds more people
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
It's my understanding that the seating change was mostly a capacity issue. It had nothing to do with the size of the riders.

Under the original seating configuration they would often get people who didn't want to sit with someone else in their lap. That meant even though the rockets' max capacity was 8, many were going out with only 4 or 5. So when they changed to the new configuration it allowed them to consistently fill all 6 seats, making for a higher rider-per-hour count than the old rockets.

Of course the more-secure restraints were good for the lawyers, too.

-Rob
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Hard to imagine now but a few short years ago there were no air gates or fences at load either.
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It's hard to wrap my head around this one. It's hard to believe the park would allow guests to stand mere feet away from the drop and the pathway of moving vehicles with only a yellow line and possibly a cautionary word to stop them. Then again, it was probably no more dangerous than most subway platforms in the world.
 
Scuttle

Scuttle

Well-Known Member
It's fun looking at stuff now and trying to predict what will change in the coming years. Am I the only one that does this!?

I predict the WDW railroad will have a door system installed in the next 5 years lol.
 
IWantMyMagicBand

IWantMyMagicBand

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
It's hard to wrap my head around this one. It's hard to believe the park would allow guests to stand mere feet away from the drop and the pathway of moving vehicles with only a yellow line and possibly a cautionary word to stop them. Then again, it was probably no more dangerous than most subway platforms in the world.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the Simpsons "in trouble, outta trouble".
 

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